Area farmers honored at annual North Dakota State Harvest Bowl

James (L) and Patty Thomas (Middle) of Mott with NDSU President Dean Bresciani (R). (Courtesy Photo)

Hettinger County—James and Patty Thomas (Mott)

James and Patty Thomas farm with two of their children and the children’s families on a 109-year-old farm near Mott. They raise spring wheat, durum, corn, canola, field peas, sunflowers, flax, barley, safflowers and cattle using no-till, variable-rate fertilizer application and precision-planting farming methods. The Thomases have been farming for 36 years. James also is president of the St. Stephen’s Knights of Columbus, and a member of the Mott Equity Advisory Board and St. Stephen’s Church Board. Patty is president of St. Stephen’s Christian Mothers and a member of the Slope Electric Operation Roundup Committee. They have four children.

NDSU President Dean Bresciani (L) with Lyndsey (Middle) and Chad Erickson of New England. (Courtesy Photo)

Slope County—Chad and Lyndsey Ericsson (New England)

Chad and Lyndsey Erickson raise spring wheat, durum, corn, alfalfa and cover crops for haying and grazing, and have an Angus cow-calf operation on a fourth-generation farm near Amidon. They use minimum-till and one-pass seeding farming methods and artificial insemination breeding and twice-over grazing rotation in the cattle operation. Chad also works part time as a master electrician and is a director of the Little Missouri Grazing Board and a volunteer and the treasurer for the Amidon Fire Department. Lyndsey is a teacher, 4-H club leader, emergency medical responder with the Amidon First Responders, religion teacher at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in New England, director of the Amidon Dinner Theater and a Slope County Fair Board member. The Ericksons have three children.